De Nola Opusculum, Distinctum, Plenum, Clarum, Doctum, Pulcrum, Verum, Graue, Varium & Utile
Ambrogio Leone
(Italian, 1458 or 1459–1525)
Girolamo Mocetto
(Italian, 1454 to 1458–not earlier than 1531)
Giovanni Rosso
(Italian, active 1480–1519)
1514
Place of PublicationVenice, Italy
Medium/TechniqueIllustrated book with four engravings
DimensionsOverall: 31.6 x 21.6 x 1.5 cm (12 7/16 x 8 1/2 x 9/16 in.)
Credit LineWilliam A. Sargent Fund
Accession number47.1379
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Not on viewClassificationsIllustrated books
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Venice: Giovanni Rosso, 1514
A doctor, Leone lived in Venice, but had been brought up in Nola, near Naples. This book is a complete study of the ancient history and customs of his hometown, for which Leone sifted every ancient source he could find, sorting the results in a rigorous and systematic way. This kind of study of a single place, combining evidence from both ancient texts and the study of ruins, was very new in the 1510s.
ProvenanceJacques Auguste de Thou (1553-1617; arms and initials on binding); Ulrich Hoepli, Milan (label); Otto H. Ranschburg, New York, from whom purchased by MFA, September 18, 1947.